Under the control of the Thai
Ministry of Education: Chor Mor
04-004/2554

"The House of
Sweet Smelling Herbs"

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.You canclickon what interests you below.

We're aTraditional Thai Massage Schooland Herbal Medicine Centre
as well as a sort of
Thai village inn withLive-in Accommodations
for both students and guests.
Licensed by the Thai Ministry of Education, we offer courses inTraditional Thai Massage, WombliftingandRelated
Herbal Therapies
-- our classes are for 10 to 25 days
with a maximum of 12 live-in students from novice to professional. But what's really unique about us as a school is
our guests and non-studying partners, some even with children.
Indeed, everybody is welcome here, and anybody can sit
around our big table or in a chair on the screened porch upstairs in
one of our old wooden farmhouses.

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Our Director,the well-known
teacher,Homprang Chaleekanha,
is licensed as a Traditional Doctor, Herbal Pharmacologist, and
Midwife by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, and our Certificates
recognized by The Thai Ministry of Education. In
addition, we hostGroups, Conferences and Seminars(up to 20
participants) for those who want to come here with their own
teachers and/or special interests. And
this is also the home of the poet,Christopher Woodman,and we welcome writers, artists, musicians, actors,
philosophers, circus
performers and indeed anyone
who is troubled by whatever you call that thing buzzing
around in your bonnet.

June 6th,
2020

WE ARE STILL CLOSED, BUT...

Due to the
Covid 19 Emergency, The Baan Hom Samunphrai School has been closed
since March 18th, 2020. But life moves
on, and we are so looking forward to opening again as soon as the
Thai Government feels it is safe for us to do so. Thai airports are
tentatively setto
reopen on June 30th, and we are very much hoping to open some
regular classes again as early as August 2020.

You can print out
our Map
in Thai and Englishto get here.
It
takes 15-20 minutes from the Chiang Mai city centre
in a tuk tuk (3 wheeler), song
taew
(red pick-up truck taxi) or blue & yellow passenger-car taxi -- they all cost about the same. Our phone
numbers are all there so when the driver gets lost he can phone us.

tel. 081.885.1429 - English or Thai
direct to Homprang (8.00am or after 6.00pm is best
for her.)

A Full Massage
takes about two hours and costs 800 baht -- a Foot Massage is
400 baht and takes about one hour. Either can be combined with a
Herbal Steam Bath (200 baht) which can take up to an hour and
includes dips in our cooling pool along with home-grown herbal tea.

If you think you might benefit from a special
Therapeutic Massage (1300 baht), Therapeutic Massage with
Herbal Compresses (1600 baht), or Womb-lifting
(1600 baht), you can discuss your condition with Homprang. Indeed,
you may come just for an informal talk about your condition with her
-- there is no charge for that. And we welcome visitors.

You will walk by this moss-covered waterpot under
our Bo Tree as you enter.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Beside students and
their partners, our guests include individuals of all ages, couples
and whole families who come to us for a variety of reasons: the
beauty of the place, the good company around our big table, the
herbal steam baths, massages and other therapies, and of course the
opportunity to relax, catch up, recover, or get on with some
personal project. There are no coffee shops, restaurants, bars or
even 7/11s around us, so you can't just walk out our door for urban
refreshment. On the other hand, we have rice fields, the river,
small local temples and earth-markets everywhere, and very likely
you will be the only foreigner wherever you go, on foot or by
bicycle. It's rough, simple, and there's an awful lot of litter, but
it's also somehow more than just there, and much more than
beautiful.

Baan Uii Dee with its hand-made green tiles -- always cool and
fresh under bare feet (no shoes are worn on any of our floors). You
can see how the floor is used in the various photos of students preparing
herbs for herbal compresses and steam baths in the subsequent pages.

Baan Hom
Samunphrai is the home of Maw Samunphrai ("Herbal Medicine Doctor")
Homprang Chaleekanha,61,
a specialist in
Traditional Thai Massage (Nuad Boran)and Thai Yoga (Rasidaton)who also
practices Thai Therapeutic Massage, Midwifery and Herbal Medicine.
'MawHom,' as
she is called, grew up in a small village on the Burmese border with
no road or electricity, the only 'doctor' being her rice-farming grandmotherwho doubled as the local mid­wife and herbalist -- there's more
about her grandmother here.
Maw Hom
is now not only licensed by theThai Ministry of Public Healthas a Traditional Doctor but as a Herbal Pharmacologist, a Traditional
Midwife, and a Massage Teacher,
and her
school is approved by the Thai Ministry of Education.She has also travelled widely in Europe and North America,
and is fluent in English as well as Thai, a rare facility among
genuine traditional healers.
And finally, Homprang is very active in the local Thai community,
and volunteers her time and expertise to Thai patients as well as to
the growing number of Thai students coming back to their traditional
medicine. And she'san inspiring leader.

Maw Hom comparing notes with a Canadian Botanist;
enjoying her friends by the pool; working with two professional
colleagues, one Thai, one English; leading the Rasidaton
(Thai Yoga) at 7am.

Introducing her western students to Acharn Suwan,
a Buddhist philosopher & herbalist, at his simple garden retreat in
Chiang Dao; demonstrating 'Womb-lifting' at an International Health
Exhibition; with her colleagues at The Association of Thai
Traditional Healers -- as a group they are heavily involved with
teaching young Thai students old medicine!

All the above roots, stems, leaves, flowers and
fruit have medicinal value, and Maw Hom will show you them if not in
her own herb garden then in her community
or earth market. In the final photo, Maw Hom is showing Thai
children from an International School how medicines were made when
she was a child. The students all left with a little bottle of
Tiger Balm made by themselves. This, she feels, is some of her most
influential work.

HOW OTHERS SEE US:

An appreciation
of us
by Brie
Jacobs.

"Thailand
for me was such a beautiful, eye opening, majestic experience. I
took over 4,000 photos in an effort to preserve the impressions as
much as possible for when I got back home. Its something I want to
relive over and over ."(May 12th to July 2nd, 2015)

Homprang frequently takes photos in class with her
smart-phone and posts
them on herFacebook Page. But she loves her garden
as well, and often posts what she finds
particularly striking as she moves among her flowers, medicinal
plants, shrubs and trees just at daybreak. In actual fact she's
attending to her numerous Spirit Housesat that hour, and a very substantial following of people
from all over the world accompany her as she goes.

This is the Ganesha shrine under the Bo Tree as you walk in along
the wall. He has just been given a glass of clear water, a stalk of
sugar cane, and two
fresh pineapples, which he loves.